Optimus Prime

Color Scheme:

RED! Well, he IS a fire truck, after all, so this should come as no surprise to most Americans, where red is the commonly used color for fire engines. Anyway, his "ladder" is grey, as are some of the platforms on the truck. He has some chrome accents, such as his wheel hubs, and the guns on the super robot head, which is plainly visible at the back of the truck. His front windows are translucent green/blue plastic, which helps but doesn't entirely hide the feet inside the cab. He has some white parts as well, such as his hands and arms, upper legs, and various panels here and there. Unless you hate red, you'll probably agree that this is a solid and well done color scheme.

Robot Mode:

The cab section becomes the standard robot, and it's pretty obvious from looking at his legs. His legs are essentially the front of the cab, with the windows and everything. Still, he's well proportioned and articulated, and has a great look with a stylized chest and head. It's nice that his parts are all blocky and that some of them are rounded. The other part of the vehicle mode reconfigures into a base kind of thing.

Mega Robot Mode:

Add part of his back section to his shoulders for missile launchers, and give him one of the big hands, and you've got this mode. I don't bother doing this mode because you can't make the remaining pieces in to a base or anything, so they're just laying around. It's not bad looking, but when you go can with the Ultra mode, why bother with this one? I have yet to see this used in the cartoon.

Ultra Robot Mode:

Very cool. All the parts from the back section of the truck attach to him in some way, such as big feet, shoulder pads, and a new head. While the huge ladder on his shoulder can be a little unwieldy at times, his huge feet provide all the stability he needs to keep from falling over. He loses a little poseability in this mode, but mainly only in his feet, which can no longer be moved relative to his legs. He pretty much has a whole new look in this mode, mainly due to his increased bulk, and a new chest panel and head.

Vehicle Mode:

I've always liked the European/Japanese style fire trucks, so this one is very nice. There's really not much to complain about other than the Ultra robot head being so plainly visible. To add to the coolness, the ladder can raise, rotate, and extend.

Base Mode:

I'm not sure I'd really call it a base so much as creative use of the extra parts that are lying around when he's not in Ultra Robot or vehicle mode. I've seen this in the cartoon once, which helps with playability and validity of the mode. I'm not real fond of it, but it might be a fun mode for the smaller robots to hang around on.

Transformation:

Not too hard. The tricky parts are getting the various extra bits of armor to stay on. Basically, the cab section separates from the back of the truck, then his legs and arms fold out from the cab front and back. You point them the right direction, slide his chest down to reveal his head, and take his feet out of the cab. To go to the other robot modes, you just attach the appropriate accessory bit to the robot in the right place.

Gimmicks:

He has electronics! Press a button on his roof (or back in robot mode) and lights flash nearby while he says one of the following phrases: "Optimus Prime, Maximize!"; "Autobots, transform!"; "Fire!" (followed by gunfire noises); and fire truck sirens. His ladder is also really cool in that it raises, rotates, and extends in vehicle mode, and has four missile launchers that can each be deployed and fired individually. Deploy them one at a time using the button on the back of the ladder for a bunch of fun. Too bad the missile don't fire when you push that same button. Oh yeah, he also merges with Ultra Magnus to form Omega Prime.

Pros/Cons:

He's really cool in every mode, IMHO. I don't much like how he's a "puzzle-former" though, in that parts of him come off and are attached elsewhere to change modes. If that's not a problem for you, then there's not much else, if anything, wrong with this toy. I highly recommend this one.

Merges with Ultra Magnus to form Omega Prime!